TEAM FOUNDED:
In 2003 by Scott, Chris, & Gary Dickens as a place for local Bristol area guys and some ESPN employees to continue playing baseball at a competitive level.

2017 COACHING STAFF:
MANAGER: Brian LaRochelle
GM / COACH: Scott Dickens
COACHES: Earl Oakes, Rick Barrett, and Steve Clout

HOME FIELDS:
Muzzy Field (Bristol, CT), Bristol Eastern High School, and Rotary Field in S.Windsor

LEAGUES:
The Connecticut Twilight League and formerly also of The NABA CT Fall Ball League

2017 SPONSORS:
ESPN, Schmidt Lawn Care, Play it Again Sports, 75 Center, Tavern on the Trax, Max Pizza, Corner Pizza, Lawrence Bates – Attorney at Law, Mad Hatter Muffler, Tire Depot, A Moment Away Day Spa, Choice Motor Cars, CT Insurance Exchange, Hen House B-B-Q, Rossi’s Performance Motorsports

FIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS:
2007 UBA Manchester Twilight League Champions
2008 NABA CT Fall Ball League Champions
2011 Manchester Twilight League Champions
2014 Manchester Twilight League Champions
2015 Connecticut Twilight League Champions

2017 CONNECTICUT TWILIGHT LEAGUE:
Central Division:
Bristol Knights, Brickhouse Indians, Elmer’s, East Hartford Angels, and Wethersfield Dodgers (expansion team)
East Division:
Willimantic Ridges, Glastonbury Pirates (merged with Portland Panthers), Loco Perro Expos (new expansion version of team), East Hampton Royals (previous Expos and Nationals teams merged), and Chicago Sam’s Orioles (moved to East Division)

RECENT HISTORY and the Upcoming 2017 Season:
The 2017 Knights look to continue our recent success, after last year have 20 wins in the regular season, and the previous 2 years winning back to back championships. The team adds 2 new players to add some more firepower to the lineup and help score some more runs.

2016 Season:
In 2016, the Knights dominated most of the regular season, going 20W-4L-1T. The team was setup to win their 3rd straight championship, but fell short when they ran up against the Indians and Elmer’s in the first two playoff games.

2015 Season:
For 2015, General Manager Scott Dickens fortified the roster with some solid new additions, many of who immediately impacted the squad. Brian LaRochelle was back at the reigns after his success winning the championship his first season as a manager. He continued taking on the full time managing duties while leaning on the other Coaches (Barrett, Oakes, and Blais), while Dickens focused more on the behind the scenes aspects. In 2015 we are carried our largest roster ever, while bringing back most of the main core of guys that have won us the last 2 championships.  In the end, we had all the pieces we needed, winning our second straight championship. Newcomer Matt Niedzwiecki was dominant in his rookie season, also winning league honors as Playoff MVP and Cy Young. Chris McGrath also continued his masterful pitching in his first full season with the team, putting up nearly as dominant stats. Eddie Dickman had another impressive season at the plate, and would have likely been league batting champ had he played one more game. The defense in the outfield with the amazing options of Julio Ortiz-Rivera, Kyle Lentini, Steve Clout, Sam Leonardo, and Dan Nunes made every play, while Rick Barrett continued his outstanding play at Short Stop winning a gold glove.

2014 Season…
The Knights are coming off of an amazing 2014 in, where the squad finished with a .500 record in the regular season, but put together all the right pieces once the playoffs started. This ended with the Knights winning our 3rd MTL Championship (4th Championship overall).  We were led all year by some great pitching, early in the year behind Rick Blais, Sean Lopata, and Luke Palma, and then behind Chris McGrath (who came aboard after injurty to Lopata), and the dominant post season performances of Earl Oakes.  On the offensive side the Knights were led in impressive fashion by the monster season of Rick Barrett. Rick locked down the middle of the infield at short stop while also leading in most every offensive category at the plate… especially in clutch situations. Rick was voted Playoff MVP in the offseason by the players in the league and wasn’t far behind in the regular season MVP vote.

2013 Seaason…
2013 was a disappoing season again, where the squad finished with a 9-17 overall record including a first round playoff defeat at the hands of the Expos. The pitching staff was a bright spot for the 2013 Knights, working to a 2.76 ERA as a unit and limiting the number of free passes issued to opposing batters. The offense was more sporadic, hitting .251 for the summer. The lineup demonstrated the ability to bunch runs together when at full-strength, including a late-season doubleheader outburst at Muzzy. The order features a number of patient and experienced hitters. Cutting down on strikeouts will be a key to this upcoming season. General Manager Scott Dickens has fortified the roster with some solid new additions, many of whom will immediately impact the squad. Brian LaRochelle is helping with the running of the show this year, taking over many of the in-game managerial duties, while Earl Oakes and Rick Blais have offered up their service when available to assist with the coaching and running of the team.

2012 Season…
A disappointing season after winning the championship the previous year. We finished 3rd in our division, 6th overall… and then proceeded to lose 2 straight games in the playoffs to get eliminated. There were a few great highlights. Rick Barrett pitched an opening day No-Hitter at Muzzy Field against the Tri-County Twins. We added a few solid new players, especially the Roy Hobbs-esque old rookie… solid hitting, Drew Gallagher and the strong pitching Rick Blais. We were led on offense by Rex Cone, Jay Gilbert, Rick Barrett, Scott Dickens, and Ed Dickman. Our defensive gold glove was Erik Michael who could play anywhere and do it flawlessly. Our pitching staff was led by Lucas Nickerson who we voted our Cy Young. Rick Blais, Rick Barrett, and Rex Cone also had solid years.

2011 Season…
A fantastic playoff run capping a so-so regular season. The Knights won our second league championship (3rd overall including fall ball). This team brought it all together when it mattered most in the playoffs. Rex Cone pitched 20+ innings in 3 days (including both ends of a doubleheader to start the finals) in a superhuman-like performance. The final game was started by our original ace that never gets to throw any more… Ed Dickman. He went 5 1/3 before turning over to Earl Oakes who shut the door in dominating fashion. We were led all year by the overall great play (hitting and pitching) of Rex Cone, the hitting of Paul Franceschi, Shawn Fergusson, and Ed Dickman. Our pitchers that also had strong years were Kyle Faust and Lucas Nickerson. Shawn Fergusson (SS) and Chris Taylor (2B) made for a top notch middle infield combo that kept our defense very strong up the middle. This year was the last year (at least for now) for two of our long time and founding members, Chris Dickens and Kevin Gokey.

2010 Spring/Summer (no longer playing Fall Ball)…
We had a fantastic regular season, going 17W-4L-1T. We then entered the playoffs as the top seed. Unfortunately, a few key injuries and unforseen occurances made a few key players unavailable for the playoffs. After defeating East Windsor in a tough opening playoff game, we lost a tough game to Willimantic in the winners bracket. In the last game of the losers bracket, we then then proceeded to lose a very tough game to the Tri-County Twins. Our season ended much too quickly. It was a shame, because I do think this may have been the best team we’d had to this point, and had we had our full squad available at each game, we would have won it all.

2009 Fall Ball…
We had another solid fall season, finishing near the top of the league, but lost in the semi-final to Meriden in early November, who went on to lose to the Main Pub A’s in the final.

2009 SPRING/SUMMER…
We had a very successful regular season, going 13-5 and finishing the regular season in 2nd Place. We played 5 tough playoff games, and were ultimately knocked out in the semi-final by Glastonbury who lost in the finals to the Willimantic Ridges.

2008 Fall Ball…
We finished the rain drenched regular season in 2nd place. Our pitching was solid throughout. From there we won the semifinal and beat the Devon Dogs in the championship game to finish off our first Fall Ball Championship.

2008 SPRING/SUMMER…
We finished the regular season in second to last, but battled through the playoffs with 2 wins, before losing to the eventual champions, the Wethersfield Royals. A tough rebound year, and a tough finish in the playoffs.

2007 Fall Ball…
After playing through a tough rain drenched fall, we made the playoffs, including winning our first playoff game amoungst the remnants of a hurricane at Bristol Central… only to have the 2nd game of that double header moved till the next day in Bridgeport (it was definitely playable, but it was the rule that the incoming higher seed and incoming home team had the choice to put it off to the next day if they thought it not playable). So we were only able to muster 8 guys the next day and that was that…season over. too bad… could definately won had we played both on Saturday.

2007 Spring/Summer…
We won our 1st championship in 2007. After finishing 5th, in the regular season, we finally put it together in the playoffs and swept through without losing one game. A great come from no where to completely dominate. We always had the potential to be great all year long, but never put it together until it really counted.